About 140 years after a wave of murderous hysteria spread through colonial Massachusetts, culminating in the Salem witch trials of 1692, witches were apparently still a concern in nearby Vermont. That’s why you’ll find many Vermont homes from the 1830s with odd-looking windows on the second floor, installed at a 45-degree angle to match the roofline. According to superstition, witches can’t fly in through an angled window — their broomsticks won’t fit — so some Vermont homeowners added a so-called “witch window” as an extra precaution towards keeping them out. Also known as “coffin windows” in Vermont folklore, these off-kilter windows might also have been added so that 19th-century undertakers could remove coffins more easily, rather than navigating down the narrow, winding staircases of the day.
Which window is witch?
Witch windows are most common in the central and northern parts of Vermont.
Depending on who you ask, these quirky windows are also called Vermont windows, sideways windows, or lazy windows.
Some say these windows were originally designed to function as vents, giving rising hot air a place to escape during the summer. But the average summer temperature in Vermont is just 67.8 degrees Fahrenheit (19.9 degrees Celsius), so maybe not.